Leo's Secret Passion
by blueturtlepower4ever
Summary: Oneshot. Leo has a secret, an ability he's kept from his brothers for a long time. But when Donnie finds out, well, let's just say Donnie learns more about Leo then he could dream of. Horrible at summaries, but a decent writer. Please read!


**Finally, after sitting around half-finished on my Kindle for who knows how long, here it is. Leo's Secret Passion! Enjoy! (OK, my shortest AN ever)**

Leo's POV

"I'm going to my room to meditate." The lie slips easily off my tounge. It has been a long time since my pulse has raced for daring to lie about this to my brothers.

Donnie grunts from his corner on the floor where he's tinkering with parts of an abandoned Kraang droid, Mikey waves from his position by the TV, and Raph can't be bothered to comment.

Thankful they don't challenge me, I make a hasty retreat to my room. I shut the door behind me and breath a sigh of relief, happiness and peace. I am about to unwind and wash away my worries in my favorite way. I crouch down and grop under my bed. I pull out a black case and a large sketch pad. I hop on my bed and open the pad to the next blank page.

I caress the black case with a fond smile before flipping open the lid.

This is my second pride and joy, after my swords. Rows of many colored pencils lay in one section of the case. Watercolor paints, little cups for water and shallow indentions for mixing are in another. I even have some charcoal pencils, along with some regular graphite. My art set. My secret.

I've been drawing for about 4 or 5 years, but no one else knows. Half the time when I say I'm meditating, I'm actually practicing and perfecting my craft, or drawing to vent or so I can enjoy myself. I really love drawing. I draw everything from my family to the monsters we fight to places I have and have never been to. Sometimes I draw how I feel. It's like the paper absorbs my emotions sometimes, leaving a calm and peaceful me behind.

I've done a few watercolors. It's rather hard compared to drawing, but I love the challenge. The paint will drip and you have to adjust the painting to make the best of it. Sometimes it will look awful, but my best picture, a picture of sunset at the docks, was created by the driping.

Mikey draws too. He's pretty good, but I'm better. I'm not bragging, it's just a fact. I practice a bit more and I read books on drawing, different techniques and such. The best artists combine techniques with their own style to create something new and fantastic.

I think that's part of the reason I keep my art a secret. My brothers, mainly Raph, call me perfect and 'The Perfectionist'. And drawing and creativity is kinda Mikey's thing. His ONLY thing. If he knew his older, 'perfect' brother was better at that too, his feelings and self-estem would be hurt. I want Mikey to be happy, even if it means having to lie and hide my passion.

Plus, if my brothers knew, they'd ask to see every single drawing I make. Certain drawings are personal, for my eyes only. Some secrets and feelings are better left in the past.

Enough of the depressing stuff. I came to draw. I cast my mind out for inspiration and it lands on Mikey's reaction to this comedy on TV last night. He was literally rolling on the floor, kicking his feet and laughing like a maniac. I smile fondly and start sketching the shape of his shell.

It takes a couple of hours, but I finally finish the drawing. Now all that's left is to decide to leave it and sign it, or to color it. I yawn. I haven't slept much the past few days. Okay, make that at all. I decide I'm too tired to color and sketch a katana, my katana, in the bottom righthand corner. I replace my pencil and stuff my case under my bed. I lay my head down for a second, to rest a moment before putting away my sketch pad, but before I know it, I fall asleep.

* * *

Donnie's POV

I stand up from where I've been working on a Kraang droid and stretch. I glance around. Mikey and Raph are asleep, but where's Leo? Oh yeah, he went to his room to meditate. But that was over two hours.

I walk to his room and silently open the door. Leo is sound asleep on his bed. On top of his covers. He hasn't even bothered to take off his gear and mask. I roll my eyes and smile. Leo can be worse than me sometimes when it comes to sleeping.

I'm about to leave when I notice something. Or rather the lack of something. There's no scent of insence, the perfume stuff Leo lights when he meditates. Usually the smell remains in the air for hours. That means... Leo wasn't meditating. The idea blows me away. Not the idea he wasn't meditating, but that he lied to us.

I look at Leo again. 'What were you doing, big bro?' I think.

Now something else catches my eye. A black, album-like book lying open facedown on the floor. I frown. I've never seen it before. I creep over, silently pick it up, and flip it over to look at the page it's open to. My eyes widen. It's a drawing of Mikey, rolling on the floor in obvious mirth. I smile. It's a superb drawing and it seems to capture Mikey's essence. His innocence and happy go lucky attitude. I glance at the bottom of the page to look for Mikey's signature, but instead, I only find a small katana and today's date. I examine it closer. It's not just any katana. It's Leo's.

Once again. Blown away. Gobsmacked. Flabergasted. Thunderstruck. All the other words I can think of. LEO drew this. He's an artist. A good one at that. As good as Mikey. Heck, better, even. I glance to make sure he's still asleep and creep out of his room and into mine. Knowing how exhausted he must be, I know I have at least 2 hours before he wakes up. More than enough time to look through the book.

I sit down on my bed and open the book to the first page. It's a colored drawing of us. Our family. Raph's got Mikey in a headlock and is affectionately rubbing his head. Mikey's expression is panicky, but somehow I get the feeling, from his eyes, I think, that he's faking it, and is enjoying wrestling with his older brother.

I'm there too, a faraway look on my face, like I'm thinking about a million things at once, but still taking in the scene around me. Real me grins sheepishly. I usually do act like that. Leo stands beside me, a grin on his usually serious face. His eyes, while joyful and happy, still convey a sense of leadership, responsibility and big brotherness. Master Splinter stands behind us, a small, amused smile on his snout as he watches Mikey and Raph play around and me and Leo not doing a thing about it.

I smile at the picture. It represents our family perfectly, and it's so realistic. I look at the bottom and find another katana and a date. It's our fifteenth mutationday. I flashback and remember Leo had spent most of the day in his room. Drawing this, apperantly.

The next few pages are devoted to drawings of the Kraang, Snakeweed, April, and her kidnapping and rescue. One drawing of me and her on her balcony makes me blush.

The action shots are amazing. I half expect them to move around.

I flip through the book a bit faster. Spyderbitez, the Foot, April, Shredder, Leatherhead, the Rat King, Raph, me, Mikey, Sensi. They all look back at me at one point. Then one picture makes me stop in my tracks. A simple pencil drawing of a sword. It's not Leo's sword, though, or one of Master's Splinter's. I'm not sure whose it is. It looks familiar.

A series of images runs through my head. Leo walking away, holding a short sword. Karai clashing against Leo in battle at the WWGP lab. A shadowy figure flipping down from a watertower.

It's Karai's sword. The one she threw that allowed Leo to escape Snakeweeds grip. The one he kept. Briefly, I wonder if he STILL has it.

Probably.

I turn the page again, and Karai jumps out at me. A colored picture of her in an alley, her sword drawn and a condescending smirk on her face. An offering. A challenge. I check the dates on the two pictures. The day Raph was leader, the day Leo met her.

Page turn. Surprise, surprise. Karai. But this one is different. It's just a head shot, her shoulders and up, with the outline of a shuriken in the background. Her back is to the viewer and she's looking over her shoulder with a cocky smirk on her face. The picture is drawn in pencil, everything a shade of black or gray, except for one thing. Her eyes. Leo colored her eyes amber, giving them a mischievous and mysterious light, inviting someone, most likely Leo, to the wild side, the dark side. For a split second, I see why Leo liked her.

Then that second is over.

Man, he really fell hard for her. How, I'll never know. She's the daughter of evil, literally.

I keep flipping through, a little faster now. I had taken longer than I meant to looking at the other ones. More Kraang droids, Justin, the World Wide Genome Project Lab, and Karai abandoning us. Timothy, the Shredder, the docks, the giant wasp. Drawings of the city that take my breath away. Dogpound and Fishface, the Purple Dragons. The Kraang portal, the rock-creature, Dr. Rockwell, the Techno-Drome, Kraang Prime. An image of the sunlight from underwater that makes me tear up and pictures of us in a group hug and dancing that makes me smile.

Some more recent pictures. The park on Eastman and Laird. Mr. O'Neil, human and mutant, the Squirrelanoids, Karai through the bars of a cage, more drawings of our family, Timothy as Mutagen Man, Mikey with his acne problem, Karai battling April, Karai battling Leo, Chrome Dome, Slash. A little girl at a tea party, for some odd reason. Casey Jones, to my disliking, and his reaction to Splinter, to my delight. Metalhead and us all fighting the Kraang.

Then another pair of pictures that make me stop.

Mikey, Raph and I standing together, Leo all alone with a look of heartbreaking sadness etched on his face. Blackness surrounds us all, looking ready to consume us.

Leo kneeling over the rest of us, dead. Tears are running down his face and he's looking on in horror. Shredder's ghostly form stands in the background, blood staining his gauntlet. My stomach churns. There's something gutwrenching about seeing yourself bloody and dead. Leo. This must be his greatest fear. This is what he saw when he confronted the mushrooms. He's afraid of losing us, of failing us. Oh Leo. Why didn't you tell us?

I turn the page again and unexpectedly smile. Leo drew Mikey and his ice cream cat playing around by the fridge. He's such a good artist.

I check the clock. Uh-oh. I've been at this for almost 3 hours, much longer than I meant to. I shut the book and start to get off my bed.

"I've got to get this back to Leo's room before he wakes up." I say aloud.

"Too late for that." A voice comes from the door. Leo's standing in the doorway with his arms crossed. He does not look happy.

"Leo! How did you - "

"Mikey and Raph couldn't sneak past me if I was blind, deaf and alseep, and Master Splinter wouldn't take my book. That just left you, Donnie."

"Leo, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to pry. I came to check on you and when I saw the book and then the drawing of Mikey, well, I had to look. You're an amazing artist Leo." I say, handing him back the book.

"Really?" He asked as he takes it back.

"Totally. You're brilliant. I half expected them to start moving around. You have a gift Leo. Why didn't you tell anyone?"

He stares at the floor. "I didn't want to hurry Mikey's feelings."

"Come again?" I ask, tilting my head.

"Drawing is the only thing Mikey is good at. And I know you guys call me perfect. Don't even bother denying it!" He cuts me off. "The last thing Mikey needs is for his 'perfect' brother to be better at drawing than he is." He glares at me. "Plus, I wanted privacy."

"Sorry Leo. I really am." I pause before saying what else is on my mind. "And you will never fail us, Leo."

He blinks several times, before comprehending what I said. "Uh, thanks, Donnie." He says as his face turns red. I wasn't supposed to see that drawing.

"You won't." I repeat sternly as I give him a hug. He smiles and hugs me back.

* * *

Months and weeks later...

HAPPY 16th MUTATION DAY!

* * *

Leo's POV

It has been an awesome day. My brothers and Sensi love my presents and I love mine. Raph got me a Space Heroes action figure (Captain Ryan, of course) Mikey gave me a drawing of myself in battle and a pizza (Oh, the irony, I thought) and April gave me the complete DVD collection of Space Heroes ( I thought I had died and gone to heaven).

"Leo, can you come with me?" Donnie calls from his lab door.

"Sure." I say and walk to him. "What's up?" I ask.

"My present for you is in here." He says in a low voice. He shuts the door behind us and rummages under one of his desks. He finally pulls out a plain cardboard box. "Happy mutationday Leo."

I open the flaps and my heart gives a flip-flop over what's inside. My eyes grow wide and my mouth spreads into a wild grin. Donnie got me paint. Acrilic paint in all colors of the rainbow. There must be 20 different jars. There are also paintbrushes of different thickness. It's amazing. Already my mind is planning what kind of paintings I could create.

"Donnie! This - this - this is incredible."

"There also happens to be some canvasses tucked into that secret compartment in the Shellraiser, ready to be smuggled into your room. Ten should be enough to get you started."

"You're the best Donnie!" I give him a hug.

"No problem. Happy to help."

Later that night, I have all of Donnie's present smuggled into my room and tucked away into the closet. I get out the paints and start thinking. I smile, then start tracing an outline with my charcoal pencils. Later, I fill in the colors and paint a very thin black line over the pencil marks. It must take me hours, but finally it's done. I take a step back and give it a once over before deciding it's good enough to be Donnie's thank you gift. Seems only fitting I use his gift to do it.

I wait another hour for the paint to dry, then cover the canvas with a sheet. I carry it out to the hallway and knock on Donnie's door. I listen for Donnie's footsteps, then scram, smiling all the way.

* * *

Donnie's POV

Knock, knock, knock. A rapping at my door wakes me up from my peaceful slumber. Ugh. Who would be up at this time of night?

"This had better be good." I mumble as I trudge to the door. I fling it open. There's no one there. I look down. There at my feet is a rectangle shaped object covered by a white sheet. I bend down, pick it up, and recognize it as one of the canvasses I gave Leo. I take it inside my room and pull off the sheet. There in painted glory is April and me. I'm sitting down at my computer in my lab and April is leaning over my shoulder to see what I'm working on. Painting me is blushing slightly while April smiles at me. I blush in real life too.

In the bottom righthand corner, I see a message. I squat down to get a better look and smile.

Thank you Donnie! Hope when you see this it brightens your day!

-Leo

**Probably my longest oneshot. Anyway, i hope you enjoyed your peek into Leo's world. Please review, tell me what you think, how i can make it better. I love hearing your comments! So enjoy, keep reading fanfic, and have a prodigious (my current favorite word; October Sky fans, i'm looking at you (if you havent read it then do so!)) Day!**


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